Date: 08-20-2018

Case Style:

Case Number: 5:17-cr-00302-F

Judge: Stephen P. Friot

Court: United States District Court for the Western District of Oklahoma (Oklahoma County)

Plaintiff's Attorney: Jessica L. Perry and William E. Farrior

Defendant's Attorney: Miguel Garcia

Description: Oklahoma City, OK - Oil and Gas Repairman Sentenced to 33 Months for $450,000 False Invoice Scheme

Luis Enrique Damazo, also known as Luis Enrique Cassinelli, 54, of Oklahoma City, has been sentenced to 33 months in prison for defrauding a Texas company of more than $450,000 through fictitious invoices, announced Robert J. Troester, Acting U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Oklahoma.

According to charges filed on December 29, 2017, Damazo was employed as a repair technician by Dexter Field Services LP, a company headquartered in Austin, Texas. Dexter Field Services provides leak detection, environmental monitoring, and consulting services to industrial clients in the energy sector. Damazo’s job was to repair toxic vapor analyzers used to detect leaks at oil and gas refineries, which often required ordering replacement parts.

Rather than ordering parts from the original equipment manufacturer, Damazo ordered parts from BC Environmental, a company he secretly created and controlled. From November 2009 through October 2015, Damazo submitted fictitious invoices from BC Environmental to Dexter Field Services for equipment, replacement parts, and tools that Dexter Field Services never received. Damazo took steps to conceal his involvement with BC Environmental, including using a false identity to lease office space, opening bank accounts in his sons’ names, and creating fake identities for the purported employees of BC Environmental. Dexter Field Services paid more than $450,000 to BC Environmental as a result of Damazo’s scheme, which he used for his personal benefit.

On February 2, 2018, Damazo pleaded guilty to a single count of mail fraud related to a fraudulent invoice he mailed to Dexter Field Services in March 2015. Today, U.S. District Judge Stephen P. Friot sentenced him to 33 months in prison, to be followed by three years of supervised release. Damazo must also pay $456,863.59 in restitution to Dexter Field Services.

This case is the result of an investigation by the FBI.

Charge:

18:1341 MAIL FRAUD
(1)

§1341. Frauds and swindles

Whoever, having devised or intending to devise any scheme or artifice to defraud, or for obtaining money or property by means of false or fraudulent pretenses, representations, or promises, or to sell, dispose of, loan, exchange, alter, give away, distribute, supply, or furnish or procure for unlawful use any counterfeit or spurious coin, obligation, security, or other article, or anything represented to be or intimated or held out to be such counterfeit or spurious article, for the purpose of executing such scheme or artifice or attempting so to do, places in any post office or authorized depository for mail matter, any matter or thing whatever to be sent or delivered by the Postal Service, or deposits or causes to be deposited any matter or thing whatever to be sent or delivered by any private or commercial interstate carrier, or takes or receives therefrom, any such matter or thing, or knowingly causes to be delivered by mail or such carrier according to the direction thereon, or at the place at which it is directed to be delivered by the person to whom it is addressed, any such matter or thing, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than 20 years, or both. If the violation occurs in relation to, or involving any benefit authorized, transported, transmitted, transferred, disbursed, or paid in connection with, a presidentially declared major disaster or emergency (as those terms are defined in section 102 of the Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance Act (42 U.S.C. 5122)), or affects a financial institution, such person shall be fined not more than $1,000,000 or imprisoned not more than 30 years, or both.

Outcome: http://www.morelaw.com/lawyers/atty.asp?f=Miguel&l=Garcia&i=100627&z=73112

Plaintiff's Experts:

Defendant's Experts:

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